Festive Overture (Shostakovich)

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The Festive Overture in A major is a popular piece of music by the great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. It was originally written in 1954 for a concert at the Bolshoi Theatre, to commemorate the 37th anniversary of the October Revolution (which took place in 1917). For the concert band transcription transcribed by Donald Hunsburger, the key was changed to A-flat major. The conductor, Vassily Nebolsin, found himself without a suitable new work to open the concert, and contacted Shostakovich just days before, who set to work on the overture with great speed, completing it in three days. It is apparently based on Glinka's Russlan and Ludmilla overture, and features the same lively tempo and style of melody. Whilst the style is Shostakovich's own, the piece as a whole uses very conventional classical devices of form and harmony. Some commentators have suggested that the work is a secret celebration of the death of Stalin the year before. The overture was also used in the 1980 Summer Olympics (Games of the XXII Olympiad) in Moscow.

The overture begins with a fanfare in the brass, followed by a fast melody in the wind. This is taken up by the strings (in the band version, brass and woodwinds) and reaches a climax with a four-note motif. Suddenly the music reaches a more lyrical melody in the horns and cellos (in the band version, brass), although the tempo remains the same. All this material is developed in Shostakovich's typical style, using both themes in counterpoint, before the fanfare returns and leads to a rousing coda.